by Steve | Jan 13, 2024 | Jan-Feb 2024, Uncategorized
Walking the Fence Line in the New Year
By Carolyn Moore
One of my best lessons in making resolutions came during a Thanksgiving holiday while walking the fence line of a family farm. My in-laws, Joe and Marie Brinson, lived at the time in Tyus, Georgia, near the Alabama line. Whenever we visited, Joe would have us walk the fence line with him. It’s something farmers with livestock do a lot because your animals are only as safe as your fence is sturdy. So, while we were walking the fence line, Joe told us about how he had recently hired a guy to do a controlled burn on his property.
Listening to Joe talk about that project, I realized there were some pretty amazing spiritual principles involved that dovetailed with evaluating your life and assessing the weak places and figuring out how to make our lives healthier and more fruitful. There are three principles I picked up on the farm that might help us get in the right frame for starting the new year more productively.
First, walk your fence line and look for gaps. This is straight out of the Bible. We are encouraged to test ourselves, to be fearless in looking for spiritual gaps and places where the enemy can get to us. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). This is about getting our motives right. When our motives are prideful (we want to win) or selfish (we want what we want), God will step back and let us do our own thing. But when our motives are right – our hearts are pure and we’re after the things God values – then we can be confident he’s in there with us. We have his power and authority and blessing behind us. That’s why David prayed like that. He knew he couldn’t know himself like God knew him and he knew if he was going to succeed, his motives had to be pure. Knowing God is full of grace and mercy, he had no fear about asking God to clean house. So, if you’re hoping to be more effective, more productive, more in tune with God’s will this year, then start with David’s prayer.
Farmers don’t walk their fence line because they like finding problems or making work for themselves, but because they want a better farm. A weak fence is an open invitation to a predator. It’s also an invitation for a horse or cow to go where they shouldn’t go.
We used to live in Kentucky, and my husband Steve drove through a pretty rural stretch to get to work every day. Once he was on this little two-lane road when he came up on this huge pig, standing right in the middle of the road. Steve says this pig was as big as his car – big as a hippopotamus! Steve was worried that if it stayed there, a school bus might hit it and the bus would lose that fight. So he got around it and drove to the nearby country store to see if anyone knew anyone who lost a pig. As soon as the guy behind the counter heard what Steve had seen, he picked up the phone, dialed a number by memory and said, “Clem, your pig’s in the road again.”
Clearly, Clem needed a better fence. Good fences keep the things we value inside and the things that stalk us outside. Good fences reduce anxiety. I once heard about a woman who spent most of a night chasing down her horses after a deer broke through her fence. The horses took that opportunity of a gap in the fence to see if the grass really was greener on the other side. The fence, as it turns out, had been developing that gap for a while but it finally fell at 3 a.m. So she was out in the middle of the night chasing her horses in other pastures.
That’s how it usually happens, isn’t it? Always at the worst possible moment. I’ve noticed that my car’s “check engine light” seems to be connected to my checking account. The light will come on when I have the least money to fix it. Same with home repairs and illnesses – and with my ability to deal with life in general. It seems like the worst things happen when I’m least able to handle them. No wonder God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, has encouraged us in scripture to walk the fence lines regularly to look for gaps.
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:40). Paul writes, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). And he asks this question, “Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” Paul comes right back to motives. He’s challenging us to remember that we have the power to overcome our weakness. We don’t have anything to fear when we walk the fence lines. We may have gaps, but we can fix those. We can begin again.
Are there places in your life where the fence has fallen down? How about your prayer life? Your Bible study?
While walking the fence line with Joe, we came to a big gap in the fence – and this gap was there on purpose. It was the thruway for the cows from one pasture to another. Joe has an agreement with the guy who owns the pasture next to his, so the cows are able to come and go freely between the two pastures. But on a farm, even planned gaps have limits. Joe pointed out a couple of issues with the gap we were looking at and he said he was going to have to tell the guy that if he didn’t take care of those issues, then he would close the gap and the cows wouldn’t be able to cross over any more.
This made me think about the lessons from the book called Boundaries by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend. There are good boundaries that make healthy relationships. Good boundaries limit evil. Healthy boundaries set us free. Furthermore, Jesus died to set us free from sin, from the devil, from the world around us. And that is what good boundaries give us: freedom from weakness, the enemy, and the world.
Too many gaps in your fence – even planned gaps – and the whole point of the fence is lost.
As we enter the new year, what places in your fence need to be repaired to keep the predators out, to keep your values in, and to keep the anxiety low? Where have you allowed unhealthy gaps? Are there too many planned gaps, too many commitments, too much for you to do well?
Second, dig your firebreak. While we were walking the fence, Joe pointed out a shallow ditch that ran along the fence line. He said it was a fire break. The farm is about twenty acres of pasture surrounded by about twenty acres of woods. The wooded area is mostly on the perimeter, near the fences. Joe wanted to burn off the underbrush in the wooded section and he told us that before they started the fire, they had to build in a fire break – a shallow trench about five feet in from the fence all the way around the perimeter of the property.
The point of the firebreak is to keep the fire from burning over onto the neighbor’s property. What really struck me was seeing the firebreak not on the property line but a good five or six feet inside the property line. It struck me that if we’re going to be respectful of the people around us, we’ve got know our limits and live, not at them, but inside them. Build a fire break – not just for you, but for them, too.
Maybe this is what Paul meant when he wrote, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Galatians 5:25-26). I hear Paul calling us to stay within healthy spiritual boundaries – in step with the Spirit – so we don’t end up provoking people or becoming envious of what they have.
James puts another spin on it, when he talks about the tongue. He says, “We all stumble in many ways. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check” (James 3:2). Then James goes on to say that the rest of us need to learn how to put controls in place so we don’t get beyond our limits. And he talks especially about getting beyond our limits in how we talk to each other. He says, “the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark” (James 3:5).
When we get past our limits emotionally, we may end up blowing flames in the direction of people who don’t deserve to be burned. That’s why we need a sort of firebreak, personal limits that keep us from letting our frustrations bleed onto other people. I think if James were writing to an audience today, he’d make a comment here about email. He would encourage us to step back from negative emails and refuse to fire off kneejerk responses. What a great forest is set on fire by these sparks!
What firebreaks do you need to dig inside your fence line? Do you need to set a personal policy for stepping back rather than jumping in when you get negative feedback? Do you need to evaluate your life to see where you’ve gotten beyond your limits and to re-establish new boundaries? Are there relationships that need repair because you’ve stepped across lines?
Third, practice controlled burns. After they dug the firebreak a few feet in from the fence line, they set the woods on fire. On purpose! The point was to clear out the underbrush, get rid of dead trees and limbs and stimulate seed germination.
I love this idea. This is about getting rid of the stuff that seems harmless, but is actually sapping the life out of us. It’s also about getting rid of the stuff we know is hurting us. Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).
Jesus is talking here about a controlled burn. About getting rid of anything that might start a fire in your life or sap nutrients from the more important stuff. Paul wrote, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Ephesians 4:31). Do a searching and fearless moral inventory and get rid of the sin in your life.
When we’re talking about spiritual things, our tendency is to think only in terms of our relationship to God or Jesus Christ. But the fact is, if our relationship to sin does not get weaker, then our relationship to God cannot get stronger. So, considering your relationship to the weaknesses in your life, can you say you are further along spiritually than you were a year ago? If not, then what needs to be burned away so you can grow a healthier spiritual life?
Walk your fence line and look for the gaps that need repair. Dig a firebreak, well inside your property line, not just for yourself, but for the people around you. Do a controlled burn. Get rid of the underbrush and the dead wood. Prime your soil for new growth.
Be fearless. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Carolyn Moore is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church in Evans, Georgia, and the author of When Women Lead (Zondervan). Her MDiv and Doctor of Ministry degrees are from Asbury Theological Seminary. She co-hosts a podcast and writes at artofholiness.com.
by Steve | Jan 13, 2024 | Jan-Feb 2024
Bigger Than You
By Kimberly Reisman
“‘The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I’ve seen for myself how cruelly they’re being treated by the Egyptians. It’s time for you to go back: I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.’ Moses answered God, ‘But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ ‘I’ll be with you,’ God said. ‘And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain’” (Exodus 3:9-12, The Message).
Each of us has a life picture – a picture of the way our life is or might become. These pictures are usually grounded on what we believe we can accomplish with our own strength and resources. The Exodus passage shows us how limited that kind of understanding can be. Moses had a life picture, but it didn’t involve leading God’s efforts to liberate Israel from slavery – “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11, NLT).
As Christians we serve a mighty God, creator of the universe, a God who is bigger than we can possibly imagine. It is that mighty God who has created our divine destiny, a destiny that is also bigger than we can imagine. Where our life pictures are rooted in common sense, the mighty God we serve has created a purpose for our lives that almost always defies common sense.
Do you remember the story of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who died before Jesus got there? When Jesus arrived, he told the people to open the tomb; but Lazarus’s sister, Martha, who like us, was limited by common sense says, “Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days” (John 11:39, NLT). Common sense holds us back from moving beyond our own life picture, toward the picture that God has for our future. Martha couldn’t move beyond her common sense, which told her what a four-day-old dead body would be like. Jesus had to remind her of God’s picture. “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?” he asked her (verse 40).
The common sense that informs our life picture tells us, “I’m too old,” “I don’t have a degree,” “It doesn’t make sense.” But our created purpose does not stem from what we can imagine about ourselves. It stems from what God imagines about us – and that is always bigger, always better.
As Moses continues to argue with God about sending him on this mission, he protests, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now … I’m clumsy with words” (Exodus 4:10, NLT). We tend to echo that when we finally catch a glimpse of God’s purpose for our lives, “God, I could never do that; I’m not bright enough … I’ve been divorced … I’m in recovery.” But again, God’s response makes it clear that our picture is just too small, too limited. It shows us that God not only will be with us as we pursue our future, God will provide us with exactly what we need, when we need it.
“Who makes mouths?” the Lord asked him. “Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say” (Exodus 4:11-12, NLT).
God, the creator of our future, provides us with the tools we need to understand that future – not only in furnishing us with gifts and talents but in giving us ordinary tools in our everyday life experience, tools we may not recognize as significant. When Moses encountered the burning bush, he was carrying a shepherd’s staff, an ordinary stick that shepherds use every day. God told Moses to throw it to the ground; and when he did, God turned it into a snake. That ordinary staff became the source of extraordinary signs and wonders when Moses finally confronted Pharaoh.
We move from our limited life picture toward God’s created purpose when we recognize that God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. Throughout my life I’ve had and continue to have many unchurched friends. I don’t believe that’s an accident. My passion in ministry is to empower leaders to reach out to unchurched folks, to help leaders make the journey of faith a relevant and meaningful experience for those who are taking their first steps on that journey. That’s how God works. God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. Years ago, Mike Slaughter used an equation to illustrate this truth: Our ordinary experience and passion, plus God’s presence, equals a mighty work.
God’s purpose for our lives is always bigger and better than we can imagine when we limit ourselves to common sense, when we remain bound by the seeming ordinariness of our experience. Yet, God uses that ordinariness for his purposes when we open ourselves to God’s picture for our lives, reminding ourselves that it’s not how we imagine ourselves that is so crucial to grasping our future; it’s how God imagines us that counts.
Kimberly Reisman is Executive Director of World Methodist Evangelism (worldmethodist.org), a ministry that equips the global Wesleyan Methodist family of Christians for the work of evangelism. This article is adapted from her book, Knowing God: Making God the Main Thing in My Life (Abingdon). Used by permission of the author.
by Steve | Jan 13, 2024 | Jan-Feb 2024
Until the Work is Done
By Rob Renfroe
Some have asked about the future of Good News – and understandably so. Our sister organization, The Confessing Movement, has concluded its work to reform and renew The United Methodist Church. More than 7,000 churches have now left the denomination. The bishops have said it’s time to be done with disaffiliation. And leading centrists have said that churches wanting to leave should do so by the end of 2023.
It would be reasonable to ask, “Isn’t the work of Good News done? You worked to maintain a biblical sexual ethic in the church’s Book of Discipline – and were successful. You provided resources for churches contemplating disaffiliation and many have said it was the information you provided that made the difference for their congregations. You helped churches find the legal aid they needed when their bishops misused their authority and denied congregations fair treatment and justice. And Par. 2553 in our Book of Discipline that provides a path for leaving the UM Church expires at the end of 2023. So, good job, but it’s over. What’s left to do?”
But it’s because Par. 2553 terminates at the end of the year that the work of Good News must continue. In the United States, some churches considering disaffiliation were told by their bishops, district superintendents and pastors (I heard them say it), “You don’t have to make a decision now. In fact, you shouldn’t make a decision now because you don’t know what the General Conference will decide in 2024. Nothing has changed in the UM Church and it may be that nothing will change. Wait to see what GC 2024 does and then you can determine whether you should stay or go.”
Those representing the UM Church said these things knowing (1) that paragraph 2553 would expire at the end of 2023, (2) that all centrist and progressive leaders along with the bishops said they were committed to supporting gay marriage and the ordination of practicing gay persons and (3) there would not be enough traditionalist General Conference delegates remaining to prevent the 2024 General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, from changing the Book of Discipline. They told churches to wait, knowing that the bishops were done with disaffiliation and had no intentions of creating a new way out for traditional churches.
I get it. Traditional churches that have remained made a mistake. But I also get that it’s hard for good people to believe that a pastor, a district superintendent, or a bishop would mislead them. So, some congregations that trusted the UM Church to be honest and fair will find themselves wanting to leave next May after the General Conference meets and will not have an approved pathway to do so. Getting out will be a battle. Good News feels compelled to help them fight that battle.
Even more egregious is the unjust treatment that churches outside the United States have received. The bishops ruled that Par. 2553 does not apply to churches in Africa, the Philippines, and other places outside the U.S. So, the pathway that American churches have used to exit the UM Church has been denied to the majority of United Methodists who live in other countries. When I asked a UM bishop if any bishops were making plans to allow those outside the US to leave, the answer was, “Well, I’ve heard some talk about it.” I pressed, “Do you know of any progressive or centrist leader or bishop who is working on legislation for GC 2024 that would allow the Africans to leave?” The bishop’s response was “no.”
The bishops want to be done with disaffiliation – they’ve stated that. It’s apparent they have no desire and no plans to prepare a similar path for international churches to exit the denomination that we in the U.S. were afforded. When I was in Nairobi, Kenya, this September with over forty African leaders, they referred to this double-standard as “colonialism.” And the regionalization plan that the bishops and centrist leaders are promoting so that the U.S. will have its own version of the Book of Discipline and the Africans will not be able to speak into it – that plan, the Africans referred to as “the apartheid plan.”
International delegates know how they have been mistreated by UM leaders. They are very aware that they have been marginalized, discriminated against, and denied justice. When I spoke to the leaders in Nairobi I told them, “You came to the U.S. for decades to fight about issues that were not African issues and that were already settled in the Bible. Still, you came over and over to help us when we needed you. And now that you need us – we’re not going anywhere. We’re staying with you. We’re fighting with you. And we are seeking justice for you.” Even now we are partnering with our African friends in promoting their attempt to receive an exit plan from General Conference 2024.
One of two scenarios will come out of GC 2024. The one that is preferable will provide a pathway similar to Par. 2553 for all UM churches, American and international. If this is the case, Good News will help congregations around the world considering disaffiliation understand where the UM Church is headed and why traditionalists need to leave.
The other possibility is that traditional churches inside and outside the U.S. will be denied justice. In this scenario, churches will need to look at their options and determine their best way forward.
Good News is committed to using all we have learned during this season of disaffiliation to support and coach these churches as they exit the UM Church. Some will leave quietly and start new congregations. Outside the United States, entire annual conferences may decide to leave, as happened earlier this year in Kenya. Other congregations will feel a need to seek justice in the secular courts.
This path is unpleasant, arduous, and emotionally exhausting. Fighting discrimination and oppression always is. But fighting for justice is not something churches in the U.S., Africa, the Philippines and other countries elsewhere will do alone. Because Good News isn’t going anywhere. We’re staying. Until the work is done, we’re staying.
Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 12, 2024 | In the News, Perspective / News
Start Off 2024 with an Act of Rebellion
By David F. Watson
There’s nothing more central to the postmodern Western mind than radical autonomy. Put more simply, we can express the common mindset of our age as something like, “I’ll do what I want and be who I want. I’ll live as I want and die as I want. I am my own master, and none will master me.”
Whether we’re talking about gun laws, abortion, gender identity, sexual expression, or “medical aid in dying” (assisted suicide), our default conviction is, “My will be done.”
We don’t normally perceive this mentality any more than fish perceive the water in which they swim, but it guides our thoughts, words, and deeds. Our minds are neatly conformed to the patterns of this age.
Orthodox Christianity offers us a remarkably different vision of the self. The NRSV renders Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The phrase “to this world” in this passage is more accurately translated “to this age” (Greek: aión).
The current age misshapes our minds. We’re like out-of-tune instruments. In order to discern what is good and acceptable and perfect – about ourselves, other people, and God – we must be transformed. It is necessary for God to renew our minds by the power of the Holy Spirit. As God does this necessary work, we see the world with increasing clarity. The scales come off of our eyes. The Holy Spirit heals the corrupting influence of sin on our minds, and the ways in which we were conformed to the present age become ever more apparent.
If my students or former students are reading this right now, they’re probably rolling their eyes. I’m like a broken record on the epistemic consequences of sin, also called the noetic effect of sin. These are just ten-dollar phrases which mean that sin warps the way we think. The patterns of this age are distorted by sin, and we soak in this distortion by osmosis from the time we’re born. (Yes, I know I talk about this too much but it’s important, okay? No, I’m not defensive. Why do you ask?)
I’m a Wesleyan. Nothing against Calvinism. It’s just not my jam. Being a Wesleyan, I believe we can resist the effects of God’s grace in our lives. What is crucial if we wish for God to renew our minds is a posture of openness to the transforming love of God. That means we give up our commitment to self-will and offer ourselves in joyful obedience to God’s will.
Wesley’s covenant prayer is a great way to enter a posture of openness and obedience to God. I recommend praying this prayer not just at the beginning of the year, but throughout the year. It is a beautiful expression of obedience and devotion to the God who saves us.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Seedbed also offers a contemporary rendering of John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, which would be great to use in small groups or Sunday morning worship.
Begin this year with an act of rebellion against the patterns of this age. Begin to know yourself as God knows you. Yield to God. Make yourself fully available to receive his transforming power. We Christians are no longer our own. We are God’s. To live out this truth may be treasonous to the spirit of this age, but then, as Jesus said, no one can serve two masters.
David F. Watson serves as Academic Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University, and is an ordained elder in the Global Methodist Church. Dr. Watson is also the lead editor of Firebrand. This editorial is reprinted from his Substack column found here. Duccio di Buoninsegna was an Italian painter in the late 13th and early 14th century. His Pentecost painting is found at The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, an art museum in Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy. Public domain artwork.
by Steve | Jan 5, 2024 | In the News
Leave Your Stuff Behind
By Maxie Dunnam
Tucked away in the Old Testament story of Joseph’s journey into Egypt is a verse packed with far more meaning than appears on the surface. It teaches an eternal truth that we’d do well to consider as we enter the New Year. Rehearse the story.
Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph found favor with the Pharaoh and became one of the trusted officials in Pharaoh’s court. A strange irony of fate, obviously the providence of God, brought Joseph and his brothers who had betrayed him together again. A famine had ravaged the land of Canaan. The people were without food, and they came to Egypt seeking to buy food from the Pharaoh.
It was soon revealed that the person with whom they had to deal was the brother they had sold into slavery. The tables were turned. Here they were asking for food from the person they had cast away. When it came to Pharaoh’s attention that Joseph’s brothers had come, it pleased him. He instructed Joseph to bring the whole family away from Canaan, promising to give them the goods of all the land of Egypt, and it is at this point that a power-packed Scripture passage is found. “Do this, said Pharaoh, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, bring your father and come. Give no thought to your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours” (Genesis 45:20). King James’ version translates that word this way: Regard not your stuff, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.
There’s all sorts of meaning in that. Another translation has it – leave your stuff behind.
Six years ago, my wife Jerry and I moved into a “life care community.” We have not had a single reservation. Being a Methodist preacher, we have moved numerous times. At our age and station, our intention is this is our last move, until the Lord moves us home with him. Though comfortable with that fact, we were not prepared for both the emotional and physical ordeal. Moving is tough!
The monumental issue: what do we move? What do we leave behind? Moving from 3600 square feet to little more than one third that size didn’t help. It’s amazing how much “stuff” you can accumulate in 66 years of marriage. Thus, the pressing question, “What stuff must we leave behind?”
I invite you now to take a huge emotional/spiritual step with me … What is the stuff, the real STUFF, we need to leave behind as we move into 2024? Let’s be honest.
Self-pity is one bundle of stuff I want to leave behind. I don’t know of a heavier burden which many of us carry than self-pity. It’s the kind of burden we are unwilling to drop off. Someone hurts our feelings, and we carry our hurt with us forever. We’re treated unfairly and we never forget it. Something happens in our family, and it seems that we’re being put down. Someone else is receiving special treatment, so we get a kind of stepchild complex. We suffer physically and we get the idea that the whole universe is out to persecute us. Such an easy snare to fall into, self-pity. Let’s leave it behind this year.
The second bundle of stuff we need to leave behind is what I call illegitimate responsibility. I’m talking about the responsibilities which we rigidly claim for ourselves, but which don’t legitimately belong to us. You know what I’m talking about? We bury ourselves beneath a great burden of responsibility we can do nothing about; that really doesn’t belong to us. We have simply, illegitimately assumed it.
Our journey into this New Year will be more meaningful if we can determine that there are certain responsibilities which are ours. These we will accept and give our resources to. There are other responsibilities which we simply have to leave with others and with God. Let’s leave it behind.
Along with self-pity and illegitimate responsibility, (we can’t name them all) I mention one other bundle that needs to be cast off as we stride into this New Year. I call it the bundle of cancelled sin. The phrase comes from Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Oh, For A Thousand Tongues to Sing.” He claims that this is the work of Christ:
“He breaks the power of cancelled sin/ He sets the prisoner free/ His blood can make the foulest clean/ His blood availed for me.”
Scores of people who beat a steady stream to my study door for counseling are burdened down by cancelled sin. Somewhere in the past, they have done those things, been involved in those situations, had relationships about which they feel morbid guilt. They carry this burden around as an inside burden which no one knows about. But like a malignancy, it grows and spreads until it poisons the person and brings a sickness unto death. I doubt if there is a reader who does not have an idea what I’m talking about. The memory – the haunting memory of some past wrongdoing devastates our life.
It is the very core of the Christian gospel that God through Christ forgives our sins, and our sins are cancelled by God’s grace. But obviously, this fact and experience are not enough. Cancelled sin still has power – destructive power, in our lives. How then is the power of cancelled sin actually broken? Here is the key: confession and inner healing. I believe that under most circumstances, not only confession to God but confession to another is essential for healing and release from the power of cancelled sin. This is the reason James admonishes us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16). Once we have confessed to a minister or to an intimate friend, the poisonous guilt that has been bottled up inside is released.
A medical analogy is apropos. When an infectious boil appears somewhere on the body, antibiotics are given. If these do not destroy the infection, usually the infection is localized and has to be lanced. The surgeon uses the scalpel and opens the boil in order that all the poison might be drained.
Confession is something like the surgeon’s scalpel. Honestly opening our lives in confession, the poisonous guilt we have bottled up within has a chance to flow out. Confession becomes the cleansing process by which the self is freed from the power of cancelled sin.
Now there are two requisites for redemptive confession – one, you must trust the person, the person or the group, to whom you confess; and two, your confession must not be destructive to another person. We dare not disregard the health and wholeness of another in order to seek our own release. The big point is that the burden of cancelled sin is too great for us to carry into the New Year. You can leave that stuff behind because God forgives. Let us leave it behind.
2024 is a new year. Leave your stuff behind – self-pity, illegitimate responsibility, cancelled sin, all your junk. Leave it. You are forgiven. Your failure and weakness are accepted. Your past is buried in the sea of God’s loving forgiveness. Go into the New Year with Christ, and go joyfully.
Maxie Dunnam is minister at large of Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. During his more than sixty years of ministry, he has pastored congregations of all sizes, as well as serving as world editor of the Upper Room and president of Asbury Theological Seminary. He is a prolific writer, having authored more than forty books, including The Workbook of Living Prayer which has sold more than a million copies and is printed in six languages. This article was first published by Wesleyan Accent published by World Methodist Evangelism and is reprinted here by permission (worldmethodist.org). Image: Shutterstock.
